Sponsor a child

3 reasons for choosing
Voix Libres scholarships

100% of your money is given directly to the children and their families
Multiplier sponsorship: each family helped is responsible for getting another family out of poverty
Transparent reports in the Voix Libres newsletter

Thanks to you, how many families will be saved from illiteracy and poverty and given a chance to learn to read and write and become future leaders of these invisible and neglected people?

Financing a family scholarship at Voix Libres means:

integrating the forgotten children into a community where they can find their place and develop their talents.
giving parents a chance to become exemplary models for their children.

Where ?

In Potosí, miners say that with all the silver that was extracted from the Cerro Rico, a bridge could have been built all the way to Madrid. With the bones of the 8 million workers who died during the three centuries of exploitation, another bridge could have been built for the return trip…

At 4’200 meters, Potosí is located in the poorest department of Bolivia. Following the sharp fall of the price of minerals in 1985, which left 80% of the population unemployed, the economic situation is even more catastrophic today.

For whom ?

The child slaves laborers of the mines ...
To survive families are obliged to make their children work in the mine instead of sending them to school; there they suffer the worst possible conditions : extreme temperatures, rock falls, arsenic and cyanide poisoning, dynamite explosions and silicosis.

« Every time I see my son go down in the mine, I know he may never come back »

Their lives ?

Huts flanking the mountain
A bed of rocks for a family of seven
The cold and wind of the Altiplano (without heating or electricity)
Disease and polluted water
A meager meal of thin soups of pasta or rice
Daily violence (the parents’ and miners’ alcoholism, sexual abuse etc.)
Lack of schooling and health care.

Objective : 100 sponsorships or scholarships to rescue these child workers from the mines

YES, I will participate in the campaign to eradicate child labour by offering a family scholarship to end the living hell of an entire family… (2 parents and their 5 children)

50 CHF (30 euros) per month or 600 CHF (360 Euros) per year will provide enough food for a whole family and...

The children will :

receive school supplies and decent clothing
go to school instead of the mine
be provided remedial education and literacy classes

The parents will :

learn to read and write so as to be able to become recipients of interest-free Voix Libres micro-credits

Sponsorships in a community spirit

The sponsorships are offered in a community spirit, without naming the children, to protect them from injustice and jealousy and to protect the donors from the continuous demands of the children and their families. They are not considered to be charity but stepping stones for future leaders to become self-reliant.

The sponsorship acts as a multiplier: each family has the obligation to get another one out of misery.

Feel free to determine your sponsorship amount !

Claudia was working in the mine...
« For four months now I have been the head of the group. I spend
my time talking to young people explaining to them how dangerous
the work is for their health. I also tell them that the Fundación
Voces Libres can give them a scholarship. Sometimes they listen
to me but they are so used to suffering... »